Final Computer Project

These are the images that I created for our final computer project. We had to do something autobiographical, so I recreated portraits of myself with old photographs of my grandmother and some scanned objects found in her house. The soldiers are scanned images, and they were all hand painted by my grandpa. There are literally hundreds of them in their house, and I always remember him by them.

Tank Man!

I never posted this! This was our "Tank Man" project, we had to recreate the famous tank man photograph that was taken after the student protests at Tienanmen Square. I used photoshop, and scanned in a lot of objects in order to recreate my image.

Reworked Text Drawing

This was the first project we did in this class, and I reworked it a long time ago I just never reposted it. This was done in illustrator, and is made up of altered letter forms, 'v' and 'o'.

Modules

These are the images that my 3D teacher took of my completed module project during our crit. I am really happy with how they came out! Especially since I put so much time into them, and named my mold and everything. :)

Last Lecture!

Last week Sarah Zwerling gave our lecture. I was really intrigued by the idea of blown sugar! I had never heard of that before. I thought her installation pieces were interesting, but like she said you can't really photograph or capture an installation with video. It's one of those things where you need to be in the room experiencing it. Because of that I think that some of her pieces were somewhat lost in the translation. I thought some of her photoshop images were really beautiful, but I didn't like some of the collaging she did with the flowers and birds she made out of paper. I think some of them just looked stuck on. The work she did for the airport was really interesting and beautiful, I can't believe she had to cut out each little individual branch and leaf. I cannot even imagine how long that must have taken her. When she began explaining her process and everything that went wrong I appreciated all the work she put into them so much more.

Final Projects!

The end of the semester is fast approaching, and we've finally been assigned all our final projects for the foundation classes. I'm actually really excited about all of mine: in 2D we're making accordion books, 3D is wire installations/explorations, drawing is a life-size self-portrait, and Computers is pretty open ended with a hint of an auto-biography, and I'm really not sure what I want to do for that yet. But I like all the concepts I've come up with, and I think the finished products will be awesome! Now I'm just nervous I won't have enough time to finish everything. This last few weeks are going to be stressful!!

Melinda Steffy/ Super Stealthy Super Heroes

The lecture this week was really entertaining because everyone who has Nichola for 3D wore their superhero costumes! I wish we had been scattered throughout the room a little bit more, that would have been funnier. Justin, the giant squid, made quite the impression on the speaker! The "Illustrious Hole" was also super funny, he ran up in the middle of the lecture and put his mat in the middle of the floor, which was supposed to be a hole you'd find in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Props to him, that was gutsy. It was also nice just to see everyone else's costumes, I only got to see the pieces that they were working on when we were in the studio on weekends. I was really impressed with how a lot of them turned out!

Anyways, the lecture was by Melinda Steffy and she spoke about the online store Etsy.com. It's a site that sells exclusively handmade goods and really encourages the restored relationship between buyer and seller (ironic, because there is no personal interaction through a website!) I had heard of Etsy before, but I really had always written it off as an arts and crafts place like the art shows that we have around my house. I really liked how Esty wasn't Melinda's sole occupation, she also had a job and was still practicing her art. (I loved how she used common spices to achieve such beautiful colors! That yellow was amazing! I'm pretty sure she said for the yellow she used turmeric) Because of the profits she generates from selling her goods on Etsy, she was really able to continue making art. Melinda really stressed that to be successful using an online vending site, you need to create a product that is both function and can replicated quickly and easily. If not, your prices should reflect your time and be really high, so no one would buy, or you would underprice your item and lose money in the deal. She also said maintaining an online store to the point where you are getting noticed and are generating sales, is a huge time commitment with all the upkeep. But if you can make something you enjoy quickly and cheaply, you might be able to make a bit of money on the side.

Screenprinting

Last Monday in class we screen-printed! It was a lot of fun, I could totally see myself getting into that. For my image I found a really cool camel, and I painted little converses on his feet. It came out pretty cool! I don't think these scanned images look quite as good as they do in person, but I think "The World Needs Interesting" one is definitely my favorite. The blue printed really really well on the black. When I showed it to my roommate she was really mad because she thought I ripped off the ad! She thought it was a legit ad, not that I had printed the camel onto it. It was pretty funny.

I wish I had come up with some more interesting surfaces to print on. I brought magazines and everything, and they look nice, but if I had thought about it a little bit more I think I could have come up with some really good images. Maybe next time! I think I might take a survey of print-making next year.

Caterpillar & Squid

Super Super Heroes!

Last Tuesday, we finally had our Super hero Crit. It was AWESOME! Everyone in my class did such a great job, and our potluck was really yummy. I was Distracto Girl, I provided a much needed distraction whenever an embarassing event occurs. I had a lot of fun with it. The "Cool Caterpillar" and "Squid Man" took the cake though.


Distracto Girl Strikes!

Two Lectures

Two weeks ago Doug Bucci from the jewelry department gave our lecture. I was really impressed with his presentation. I thought it was really interesting how he got into jewelry. I also like that he showed us his process, especiallly how he used CAD. He also put a large emphasis that in the beginning he had to do a lot of commission work and maybe some things that he wasn't able to exercise a lot of creative freedom, but ultimately it opened the door for what he is able to do today. I thought his concept for the diabetes jewelry was really neat, but I still am struggling with how removed he is from the physical making of the art. Sure, his body is dictating the shapes that he is generating, but he is somewhat removed physically from actually making something. But the shapes that he was able to generate were absolutely beautiful, I loved the necklaces. I was also blown away that he was collaborating with Jeff Koons and Stella McCartney. That's amazing. But I thought the diabetes necklaces were awesome, and I can't wait to use the 3D printer! I had never heard of such a thing.


"Intellectual property is the oil of the twentieth century." -Mark Getty

This week a member of Superflex (I totally forgot to write his name down) came to Philly all the way from Denmark to talk. The group he is part of, Superflex, will be a part of the upcoming event Phillagrafika. I thought the bio-gas systems that they created were a great way to help improve the quality of living in impoverished areas, the concept itself was really awesome. All the work they do involving copyrighting was interesting, I couldn't believe they built an entire store just off of "copied" goods. The Guarana Power company they created with Guarana farmers was also a really neat way they were able to reach out and help the farmers who are taken advantage of by large corporations. I loved the stories that the old men shared that all started out "I'd like to tell you a very interesting story.." They were so funny! I was also struck by the concept of "open source beer." They must be getting a decent amount of publicity, if a news station took enough interest to try the beer-making for themselves. The entire lecture gave me a lot to think about, especially as we have been talking in computer about appropriation, when it is acceptable and when it isn't.

Silly Picture

This bust totally looks like Lord Voldemort! Uber Creepy.

PMA & The MET

Friday, my friend Alex and I met my drawing teacher at the PMA. She makes the placards there for all the artwork. It was awesome, she took us on a tour and was really knowledgeable about a ton of the artwork. I really loved all the period rooms, they were amazing! We only saw a small portion of the museum, though. Next week my whole class will be meeting her, so hopefully we'll see a different part! Right before we left, we got to take a peek at where she works. On the way, we stopped in at the conservation lab. Kate Cuffari, who gave a lecture a couple of weeks ago, and one of her colleagues was super nice and talked to us about some of the pieces they were working on. I was in AWE. It was so cool!!!! I saw all the pieces from the images that Kate showed us during her lecture. It was so interesting to see the artwork in a different context, in a cluttered lab instead of a fancy display. I absolutely loved it.

Yesterday I went to the Met with my Art History class. It was rainy and gross, so it was another perfect day to spend in a Museum! :) We spent a really long time with everyone's presentations, and we only had about 30-45 minutes exploring for ourselves which was a bummer. But I was super impressed by the building. I had no idea it was so HUGE. It would take a few days at least to see everything properly. My favorite part that I got to actually spend time in was the greek sculpture, it was in such a huge, open, and fitting space. I was really impressed with the collection as well. The African Art section was also amazing, I had never seen so much in one place. It's so easy to see how Picasso and modern artists were so influenced by African masks. Some of the sculptures in there were HUGE! I was really surprised. The Modern Art section was pretty nice as well, I got to see some Matisse paintings, he's basically my favorite artist ever! I also go to see the shark by Damien Hirst. I was really excited about the Degas section, it had a whole wall of just his tub pastel drawings which I love! And they were all in one spot together which was so cool to see them all at once.

So basically it was a great weekend for art! It was finished by a trip to Dick Blick earlier today to pick up some supplies for book-binding and silk-screening. Yay for art! :)

Eileen Neff

Eileen Neff gave the lecture this week. I thought it was really interesting that she hand painted all of her photography work. She really emphasized that she has never gone back to painting since she got into photography, but I think it was still present in her work because they were hand painted. I was really amazed with her chair cut-outs, I couldn't believe that they were completely flat. She did a lot of work with Cezanne, and I loved the idea of the child's chair. She gave small canvases to children along with images of Cezanne's work, and allowed them to recreate them. Then she placed them on the chair, as if to symbolize his work as a child. I loved that concept. I think her landscape photography was really beautiful, but I didn't really appreciate all her photoshop work. Some was interesting and pretty, but I liked it better when it was mostly done by hand.

Photoshop Painting

We had to create a five layered drawing, and we could use any medium like paint, collage, pastel, etc. and then in Photoshop create a painting. I chose to create a collage, which made the Photoshop portion difficult. The parts in the image that are painted are the some areas in the background and the rooster/chicken?'s body and neck. I just tried to recreate textures found within the images.

New 3D Project

This weekend I attacked my Super Hero 3D Project. We had to create a super hero that either fulfilled some need of the world or a need that we ourselves had. I created "Distracto-Girl." You know when a really awkward moment happens, either someone did something or said something, and then there is that awful silence that follows? Enter Distracto-Girl! She's bright and shiny and diverts your attention, so you forget the horrible embarrassing thing you just said. I finished the cat-suit portion of my costume this weekend, which is a full body (long sleeve, full pant) suit made out of neon green spandex. (Pretty much like Green Man from the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Spandex is super hard to sew! I think it looks pretty good though, so I'm happy and I can't wait to finish it!

Wacky Current Event

For this project we had to take a current event and create a photoshop image that somehow commented on the event. I found a newsstory about Russian ice-skating circus bears! Apparently a bear killed one of its trainers, and mauled another. I just thought it was really funny that they can teach bears how to ice skate! (I don't think its funny that they were killed, that's horrible!) They can ride motorcycles and other crazy things as well.

Here's the actual story: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/24/russia.bear.ice.skating.death/index.html

ESP

Two weeks ago I went to the Eastern State Penitentiary with my English class. It was sort of an overcast and cloudy day, which only lended to the omninous structure of the penitentiary. It was really eerie, but to an extent beautiful in it's decay. I forget the term that was used, but basically they aren't encouraging it's decline, but they aren't maintaining the upkeep either. So the interior was really rusty and eroding, and it just gave the whole place an even creepier feel. I had to write a short paper on it, so I won't geek out on all the facts, but the whole concept behind the penitentiary is really bizarre. The Quaker's wanted to create a system for more humane imprisonment, in contrast to the flogging, branding, and stock system currently in place at that time. The penitentiary was designed so that the inmates would be in total solitary confinement, 24/7. The only human interaction they received was from the jailer. This was supposed to give them plently of time to reflect and become "penitent" about their criminal acts. Personally, I think it's just as inhumane as the old system, because seeing the place for yourself it's not hard to imagine the insanity that solitary confinement must have induced. Personally, I definitely would not have been able to handle it.

Al Capone's Cell!

Sharon Louden

Last Tuesday Sharon Louden provided our lecture. I thought her work was really intriguing, I especially loved the installation she did in a dining room. These pieces of glass hung from the ceiling above a dining room table, which would kind of freak me out when I'm eating, but it looked so beautiful. I also really liked the concept for a commissioned painting that is now hanging directly above a bed. What made it so awesome was that it was painted in glow in the dark paint, but in fifteen minutes the paint would gradually fade and become dark again, kind of like a gradual night light. I had never really seen paintings done on mylar before, so that was really interesting too. I'm currently using mylar in my 2D class for a printing project, and I had never thought of it being used as a surface to paint on. I really liked also how her formal training informed her more abstract work. The "squiggles" she worked so much with were really interesting, and I think they sort of had a figural attitude. I also thought it was neat that she worked with Golden paint company to produce a new color of glow in the dark paint. The neon green is so generic and over-used, so it added a whole new dimension to her work because she was able to work with the company to create that blue glow-in-the-dark paint.

Tyler Installations

Sadly, the kinetic sculptures by Brad Litwin are gone. I kind of miss their bizarre whirring noises. I really liked the graphic design projects that were hanging up on the wall that followed, some of them were really witty. But I am totally in love with the marching, gum-ball carrying, polar bears! I think they are so adorable, and every few days they're in a new space. I really wish they were real, they'd make such an awesome pet.

Free Topic!

So two weeks ago our lecture was just an advising session, so nothing really to blog about there.

But in my 3D class we finally finished our plaster-mold project! That was quite the project and super time consuming, but I'm really really happy with my final results so I think it was worth it. I've been taking pictures of the steps in the process and I want to put a little slideshow together once I have some pictures of the final project.

The Process: First we chose an object to create a mold of, and I chose a back massager. We made plaster molds of our objects, which involved a nine hour day down in the plaster pit, which was brutal. Then we slip casted for a good two weeks straight, and I felt like I was taking care of a small child. I think I mentioned before that I named my mold Russel. I mean, why not? I was spending so much time with it. :) Then we altered all of our casts; I ended up just creating holes at the end of each of the little massagers, since it was already such a cool shape. Some people had to do a lot of modifying to get their objects to work out. Next we created modules out of ours modified casts. These modules had to be able to be laid out horizontally to create a repeat pattern, and also stacked vertically to create a tower. I just connected the massagers back to back. They look really neat and organic! I think they are really interesting, and the tower it makes when stacked is so awesome. I'm really proud of it!

Image Pairs

These are some of the images from the "Walk, Bike, Ride" Adventure. The first pair I chose to put together because of the strong diagonal angles found in each. They go in opposite directions and look nice contrasted together.

The second images I chose to pair together because the energy found in the sculpture reminded me of the homeless guy who wanted to pose for a picture.

And the third I paired together because I liked how the shapes somewhat resembled the couple.

I also love the picture of the couple, it's so cute! I just wish the lady was fatter, then she would resemble the sphere a little bit more.

Where the Wild Things Are

This was a project we did awhile back. We had to manipulate text to create an image, while still maintaining the integrity of the letters themselves. This particular phrase uses the letters from the phrase "Where the Wild Things Are". I made the little monsters out of the letters "i,e,r" "e,i,l,d,s" and "h,g,r,a". I tried not to manipulate them too much so you can still make out the letter forms.

Coincidentally, I just saw the movie this weekend. It was amazing! I highly recommend it!

Pig nose!

This is what I would look like if I died and then fell on top of a piece of glass! For this project we scanned our faces and then recreated the images in Illustrator. To accomplish this we found shapes in our squashy faces and built them up to create our final image. I'm really happy with how this one turned out, but it totally lowered my self-esteem by looking at the picture. It was so gross!

Lecture

Brad Litwin talked to us on Tuesday about how technology has evolved over his lifetime, and how it has affected his work. He is also the creator of the kinetic sculptures in the lobby at Tyler right now, and they are all so interesting and fun! I didn't see much artistic relevance to his lecture, but the transformation of his work due to the changing technology was really interesting. I loved the short little films he showed us, they were so quirky and entertaining. His collapsible was really clever. He seemed like quite an eccentric guy!

Warning Label

For this project we had to create a warning label for ourselves. One of my biggest pet peeves are people's voices. Some people just have the most aggravating voices, and I can't handle it. I tried to capture this by using irritating colors in the sound wave, as well as the mouth. Personally, I think it looks pretty annoying.

Conservation Lecture

I actually loved this lecture. Kate Cuffari, a conservationist at the PMA, came to talk to us. I loved all the practical examples she gave where technology aids her work. They can use technology in non-intrusive ways so that the artwork remains unharmed. She gave tons of examples, from Joseph Beuys to Rothko. She even gave a historical example; the Parthenon used to be brightly painted but today it is just white. Even in today's technology, she stressed the importance of investing in materials that will last longer for digital media. For example, get archival DVD's instead of standard one's to back up your digital media. Definitely the best lecture yet.

City adventure status

Unfortunately I didn't get into the city this weekend. My mold/casting for my 3D class has taken over my life and I named my mold Russel. I think it's beginning to slightly drive me insane.

Tuesday's Lecture

Well this lecture was way better than the "potluck/skype" lecture. Philip Glahn talked to us about relation between art and technology in society. I really liked the images he provided because I understood his connection and could identify a lot of them. He talked a lot about the anonymity in mass production, and how in art that is not good because you are striving to be a recognized individual. He also stressed how editions decrease the value of art, the more that something is produced the less value it has. I thought the example of the artist who creates replicas of artifacts that were stolen during the Gulf War was really interesting. The replicas were created entirely out of Iraqi newspapers, and the artist found the replicas and their images using online databases (technology).

Adventure day part deux (Couples & Shapes)

Oh, and I forgot. While we were walking to Quizno's my friend Katherine got pooped on by a bird :)

Blogging Blues

So my keyboard broke on my old laptop and I was bumming other people's to check email and whatnot. Today, my dad brought me a new laptop and now the internet isn't working! How ironic. I'm borrowing my roommates now to update my blog.

Saturday I ventured into the city again with Dave. I had to go to the Sidney Goodman exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum for my drawing class. I have to say I was impressed with Goodman's work, but overall I was disappointed in the collection there. Waste of $12.00.

It was fun to get really into the city again, this time it was more entertaining because we had to pick a theme for our pictures. I chose to do couples, and I saw/met some pretty eccentric people. I also sort of themed "shapes" because ever since my 2D class all I have been able to see anywhere are shapes, shapes, shapes!!! I dissect everything down into simple shapes and it's driving me crazy! I suppose it's good though, considering I'm an art student.

I saw the ultimate "couple" while walking through city hall to get on the subway, a bridal party was in the center getting their wedding pictures taken. But for risk of looking like the biggest creeper in the entire world I didn't take a picture of the bride and groom. I was bummed, it would have gone so well with my theme!

I guess we looked like uber tourists because a homeless guy posed for us and called his wife over for a picture, welcomed us to Philadelphia and then asked for some money. But it turned out to be a really cute couples picture.

Today I got into the city again, I had a field trip to go to at Penn's archaeological museum. It was pretty neat, they have an impressive collection for a University. I want to get back when the Ancient Near East collection returns. We walked around Penn's campus for a while after, it's so gorgeous there. I had Quizno's for lunch! Totally made my day.

Lecture..

I was really disappointed by this lecture. I pretty much just got "potluck, skype, discussions." The concept sounded really neat, but the speaker wasn't very good at answering questions, and he did a poor job at explaining at what actually goes on at a potluck dinner. Overall, it sounded like a good way to meet other artists and gain networking opportunities. I was also bummed that he didn't expand on what kind of projects they got into.

Walk/Bike/Ride Pictures

City Adventure!

On Labor Day I ventured into Philly for the "Walk, Bike, Ride" assignment with Dave. We took the subway into center city and got off at City Hall. We explored around there for a little bit, and heard a great musician playing the soprano saxophone. We also saw the "Love" sculpture, and I was extremely disappointed. I was under the impression that it is HUGE, but it's tiny! The fountain behind it was nice though. We walked around a little bit more and eventually made our way to Rittenhouse Square. It was fun to people watch and get some drawing in. I saw some other student photographers while sitting there. After that we heard a really great brass band playing outside the square, and they appeared to be mostly related. They were really talented, and the youngest members didn't look much older than ten or twelve. After Rittenhouse, we walked over to Washington Square. From there we started to head over to the Liberty Bell. I had never seen it before! It was pretty much just what I expected. But it was neat to finally see it. On the way over to see it, we were harrassed by a rickshaw driver. He was really mean! I don't think he gets much business if he gives everyone such a hard time. After the Liberty Bell we made our way back to Temple. It was a fun adventure getting to know Philly better.

Seminar

We had our first official Foundation Seminar yesterday. Our speaker was Peter Hanley, and he shared with us the importance of using internet resources to publicize our work, to make connections, and to maintain an artistic networking community. He gave us numerous websites as potential starting points to network with fellow artists and to show our work (inliquid.com, lulu.com, Etsy, etc.). He mainly stressed four areas that allow an audience to find you: social media, online galleries, artistic communities, and reproduction services. It was very interesting and informative, and will prove especially useful to us as art students as we begin our artistic careers at Tyler.

First Week

Made it through our first week of classes! On Tuesday we had our first lecture, it was mostly an orientation of what we can expect at Tyler this year. Gerard Brown gave us a lot of information and an overview of speakers that will be presenting in the coming weeks. I hope to venture out into the city today to start my "walk/bike/ride" assignment for Foundation Computers. It should be fun!